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There are three main ways to cut your heating bills.

Changing heating provider or change how heat is provided to your house.

Often times you will have an alternative to heating your house, whether it be from gas, oil or even underground heating. Also sometime in your area there may be more than one provider of gas, so it pays to look around and see which is the cheapest source of heating

Improving the insulation of your house.

  • Windows are a top priority as most heat is lost through windows, if you don’t have double glazing now could be the time to install it, generally this is a more long term strategy though as the cost of the install will not be paid off by the energy saving for at least five year, if energy prices go back up again though this may change.
  • Identify any drafts in your house, these can be sealed up simply and once eliminated will lead to a significantly warmer house. Generally drafts will be coming from either the floor or any joints, or can be coming through poorly sealed windows. You can consider covering windows with plastic sheets as a cheap form of insulation, this is only really useful on windows which are not usually opened.
  • Choose the right house this is probably the single most important aspect, see if you can choose a house which is already energy efficient. Unfortunately so much of the house stock currently has been built poorly in this regard, that this can be easier said than done.

Changing your behaviour

There are simple ways that you can change your behaviour to improve the energy usage in your house. You can make sure that you turn off lights whenever you leave a and are not planning to come back any time soon. You can switch your light bulbs to energy efficient light bulbs. You can turn down the heating temperature gauge a notch, you can turn off your heating over night and add an extra blanket.

      Buy used this will save you in depreciation, as generally as soon as a new car it will lose up to 30% of its value right there. More care needs to be taken on due diligence on the car, as if you buy a lemon then you will not be saving any money, and just getting heart ache.
      Buy the right car focus on a car which is reliable and fuel efficient, this one choice can save you thousands, and forget about buying a new car, buy used and you will lose much less in depreciation in the car. To give you an example of what you cold save if you drive a vehicle for 100,000 miles and choose a car which gets 15 mpg vs. a car which gets 25 mpg and with gas at $3 you save $6,000. Getting a car which is reliable will save you the hassle of having to get your car repaired, which can be very expensive as well as inconvenient
      Carpool can be a great way to save money, if there is someone who lives nearby who works in the same area as you. Fuel costs are halved as well as wear and tear on your car, and with gas prices set to increase and stay high for the foreseeable future this is a quick way to become less dependant on oil.
      Reduce your speed as the optimal speed for fuel consumption is generally 50 to 60 miles an hour, there is a reason that trucks go at this speed, and it is not just to annoy other drivers. The actual time saved is usually only 5 or 10 of the journey anyway, unless you have the good fortune to be mostly high way driving.
      Downsize to only one car this can save you with insurance and maintenance costs, though does require more management and planning, potentially it could work better in combination with car pooling.
      Use public transportation if you can ditch the car completely then you will save a huge amount of money, no more fuel costs, insurance as well as the cost of the car. Though for some people it is not an option as they enjoy just owning a car so getting value beyond just the utility of getting from A to B. Also unfortunately this is only possible when you have a good public transportation system, but it can be feasible. Generally public transport will end up being cheaper especially once you consider the total running cost of your car. For times when you do need a car you can always rent a car or there are some city based car rental schemes where cars are dotted around the place and you can pick up the local one for a set fee per day.
      Use online bill pay with your bank. This will ensure that you keep better track of your money, so that you can check for any incorrect debits and makes sure that you do not suffer any late payment fees or go into overdraft and get charged by your bank. It also saves you on the time and hassle of stamps and paper checks.
      Change your cell phone to pay as you go often times you will find that you have two benefits to this which end up saving you money, first is that you can’t spend too much in one go, so if you accidentally do a call which is costing too much you will get cut off before you can go over budget, second is that you will only pay for what you use, rather than paying for minutes that often times you never end up using
      Check through your phone bills and check if you have any services that you don’t use on there, for example if you don’t text at all then it makes little sense to have 1000 free text every month. Cancel those right away. See if you have any expensive calls that you are regularly making, you can often times change your plan to reflect your usage and save. like a surfeit of text messages or web access or something to that effect.
      Ditch your land line as we have already come to the point that cell phones have replace land lines as the main way to contact us. It may be time to cancel your land line.
      Cancel or cut down cable or satellite channels you don’t use much. Often times people tend to watch a small subset of channels and never deviate from those, so why pay for channels that you are never watching. If its only for the odd movie, then you can get your movie fix from many other sources or even buy the DVD with the money you save.
      Call up your credit card issuer and ask them for a rate reduction, they are not guaranteed to give you one, but it does not hurt to ask, you can always give them cheaper examples of other card rates and say that you are thinking of switching. If you have no luck talk to their supervisor, even a small rate reduction can make a huge difference, getting a reduction of 3% on $10,000 can be worth $300 a year.
      Put your card hidden away so that you have to make a real effort to use it. That way you won’t be tempted to use it. Ideally credit cards should only be used for online payments (for the payment protection services) and should be paid off every month, as they are normally the most expensive type of credit you can find. At least keep it out of your wallet, unless you have the requisite willpower not to use it.
      Remove your credit card details from online accounts and when paying make sure to select the option not to save your credit card details. This will give you an extra pause before you make an online purchase. This works well in conjunction with putting your card hidden away, giving you that extra pause before you by the latest abs blaster which is 100% guaranteed to work or your money back.
      Give yourself a strong visual reminder of your debt this will help to keep it in your mind, you can either do this on paper and keep it up to date every month, or get an application to automate the procedure. This will help you to focus on your goals of increasing your wealth so you can spend on what you truly want and not debt servicing so someone else can profit by your hard work.
      Consolidate your debt into one or a couple of sources. Consolidation only really makes sense if you can be a significantly lower interest rate on the consolidation loan. If you can then it can be a good way to cut down on expenditure, and it also lets you decrease the management that is required by having so many outstanding loans.
      Get on an automatic debt repayment plan often times especially for student loans if you go on the automatic repayment plan then you can get a rate reduction. This also is great as it cuts out the hassle of having to make the payment. Also consider just consolidating your student loan to a lower rate if possible.

A list of money saving tips in no particular order:

      Delay gratification, for example if there is a product you have just seen which you think you must have, wait for a month and see whether you still really want it, what you will find is that some things were not as good as you thought they would be and you buy less. A shorter version of this is when in the supermarket before buying something you did not intend to put it back and see if you still really want it. This should cut down on impulse buys. Do you have an item in your house that you used once and never again? A piece of exercise equipment or a cooking device, keep this in mind before you are about to purchase, and you may realised that what you are about to buy is not worth it.
      Instead of Going out, go in, the money saving tip revolves around inviting friends over, rather than going out as generally activities in the home will be less expensive than going out. The cost will be low and others will reciprocate afterwards.
      Don’t spend money entertaining your kids as most kids are happy with the box something came in rather than the actual item. Or buying something like Lego or puzzles which can be reused and sparks your child imagination. Children crave their parents time and attention, that is much more worth while than any other toy. Realize that what your children want most of all is your time, not stuff even though commercials may make you think otherwise.
      Buy video games that have good replay value before getting any new game have a look at how many hours it will generally take you to complete the game and get all the enjoyment from it. Some top rated games have as little as 5 hours game play, if you consider these can be upwards of $50 that is a lot to pay. Alternatively consider a game such as Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, you can easily play this game for 100 hours or more and not explore all the content which is available
      Give up bad habits habits such as cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs can be a huge drain on your bottom line. This one tip can save you thousands. Take the time to add up how much your habit is costing you per year. No one says it is easy kicking these habits, so make sure that you clearly set up in your mind what the saved money is for.
      Cancel services you don’t use much for example gym or club membership can add up quickly, but if you are only using it once a month then you are probably not getting value for money. Most reputable places will allow you to visit and pay on a per visit basis. This can end up being more cost effective. You can always renew the membership if you find that you will end up using more in the future.
      Change to term life insurance as you should not mix up insuring your life to investment, it is similar to when you trade in your car, you end up getting a bad deal on the trade in. Instead switch to term life insurance instead, then use that money for investment or to pay down your debts. As a general rule Universal and whole policies are more expensive and offer a poorer investment opportunities, it makes much more sense to reduce your debt burden first before concentrating on building wealth.
      Cancel unused paper and magazine subscriptions look through all your subscriptions and see if you are subscribe to something that you never get around to reading or only read once a month, better to cancel the magazine and buy it on an ah hoc basis. Again you can always re subscribe if you find you want to read it more frequently.
      Recycle your gifts if someone gives you a gift an you did not really want it, what you can do is just rewrap it then give it to someone else. Just make sure not to give it back to the person that gave it to you. Even if you do it is not the end of the world as most people realise that gift giving can be a very hit and miss affair
      Time is money so keep a notebook, keeping a notebook with you at all times will ensure that you don’t forget a crucial item or task and having to pay in time and money afterwards due to forgetting.
      Cutting your own hair if you spend a lot of money on hair cuts this can save a huge amount. Though clearly it only works for someone who needs a fairly simple hair cut. If you are a woman, hair can be grown long and have it blunt-cut. Then you only have to go to the hairdresser twice a year.
      Buy an electric razor this will quickly pay for itself as razors can get expensive with blade technology rapidly reaching silly amounts per razor. Many electric razors can be used with a wet shave. Alternatively a useful tip for extending the life of razors is to dry them off after the shave (preferably with a hair dryer), this is the main reason that they get dull and have to be changed so frequently.
      Encourage your friends to do cheaper activities often times going out to a club or for drinks can be very expensive, and the level of enjoyment gained can be very hit and miss. If you are the first one to suggest something then it is more likely to get done, you can even arrange a kick about in the park, which will cost you nothing and will even improve your fitness level.